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flower_lady
Guest
I am very confused and would like to know where or if the name Jehovah is mentioned in the bible and if so where? Also where did the name Jehovah come from? Thank you.
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SighGuy
Guest
The name Jehovah specifically is never mentioned in the Bible. From what I understand it’s argued to be a corruption of the tetragrammaton, YHWH. Though I would also guess that J. Witnesses would say it was not a corruption. Anyways, I don’t know.
Hebrew didn’t have vowels, only consonants, and so YHWH was the spelling of the name of God. Normally we understand it to be “YaHWeH” but since there were not vowels it could have been in the form “YeHoWaH”, or Yehowah, or Jehovah (w’s and v’s, like y’s and j’s, have an intertwined history)
Please fact check all of this, I’m not too sure on it.
Hebrew didn’t have vowels, only consonants, and so YHWH was the spelling of the name of God. Normally we understand it to be “YaHWeH” but since there were not vowels it could have been in the form “YeHoWaH”, or Yehowah, or Jehovah (w’s and v’s, like y’s and j’s, have an intertwined history)
Please fact check all of this, I’m not too sure on it.
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SighGuy
Guest
NAB notes on Ex 3:14
Ex 3: 14 God replied, “I am who am.” Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you.”
6 [14] I am who am: apparently this utterance is the source of the word Yahweh, the proper personal name of the God of Israel. It is commonly explained in reference to God as the absolute and necessary Being. It may be understood of God as the Source of all created beings. Out of reverence for this name, the term Adonai, “my Lord,” was later used as a substitute. The word LORD in the present version represents this traditional usage. The word “Jehovah” arose from a false reading of this name as it is written in the current Hebrew text.
[These following are my personal text, the notes are finished] I AM is mentioned several times in the Bible. It is used to draw a line between Jesus and God also, when he is coming towards them in the storm. After the apostles gasp and say “it’s a ghost!” Jesus says “I AM!” though in other translations he says something like “It is I” which gets rid of the reference. Though to be honest, I’m not sure if the reference itself is translated to arrive there, or if that’s really how it stands in the original texts.
Ex 3: 14 God replied, “I am who am.” Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you.”
6 [14] I am who am: apparently this utterance is the source of the word Yahweh, the proper personal name of the God of Israel. It is commonly explained in reference to God as the absolute and necessary Being. It may be understood of God as the Source of all created beings. Out of reverence for this name, the term Adonai, “my Lord,” was later used as a substitute. The word LORD in the present version represents this traditional usage. The word “Jehovah” arose from a false reading of this name as it is written in the current Hebrew text.
[These following are my personal text, the notes are finished] I AM is mentioned several times in the Bible. It is used to draw a line between Jesus and God also, when he is coming towards them in the storm. After the apostles gasp and say “it’s a ghost!” Jesus says “I AM!” though in other translations he says something like “It is I” which gets rid of the reference. Though to be honest, I’m not sure if the reference itself is translated to arrive there, or if that’s really how it stands in the original texts.
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Todd977
Guest
Jehovah is an obsolete transliteration of the God’s proper personal name (YHWH), which is now usually transliterated as Yahweh, and translated variously as “I Am He who Is,” “I Am who Am,” “I Am who I Am,” “I Am what I Am,” or “I will be What I will be.” This is the name God revealed to Moses from the burning bush in Exodus 3:13. In the Bible, out of respect for the holiness of God, the revealed name (YHWH) is usually replaced by the divine title “LORD,” spelled out in all capital letters. This name first appears in Genesis 2:4, “…In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens…”
The *Catechism of the Catholic Church *talks about this subject in the section entitled, “God Reveals His Name,” paragraphs 203-213.
The *Catechism of the Catholic Church *talks about this subject in the section entitled, “God Reveals His Name,” paragraphs 203-213.
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WilliamPaul68
Guest
Hello flower lady,
This has been an issue for me as well. I have a distant relative who is a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. She & I have had several debates regarding this & many other subjects. Here is the answer that I have for her that I will pass on to you;
Researched (and greatly appreciated) for The Church of Yahweh By Jeroen Ashton
In 1278 a spanish monk, Raymundo Martini, wrote the latin work PUGIO FIDEI (Dagger of faith). In it he used the name of God, spelling it Yohoua. Later printings of this work, dated some centuries later, used the spelling JEHOVA.
Soon after, in 1303, Porchetus de Salvaticis completed a work entitled VICTORIA PORCHETI AVERSUS IMPIOS HEBRAEOS (Porchetus’ Victory Against the Ungodly Hebrews). He spells God’s name IOHOUAH, IOHOUA and IHOUAH.
Then, in 1518, Petrus Galatinus, a Catholic priest born in the late 1400′s, published a work entitled DE ARCANIS CATHOLICAE VERITATIS (Concerning Secrets of the Universal Truth) in which he spelled God’s name IEHOUA.
Now, the direct answer to your question: the name “Jehovah” first appeared in an English BIBLE in 1530, when William Tyndale published a translation of the Chumash (the first five books of the Bible). In this, he included the name of God, usually spelled IEHOUAH, in several verses (Genesis 15:2; Exodus 6:3; 15:3; 17:6; 23:17; 33:19; 34:23; Deuteronomy 3:24. Tyndale also included God’s name in Ezekiel 18:23 and 36:23 in his translations that were added at the end of THE NEW TESTAMENT, Antwerp, 1534), and in a note in this editon he wrote: “Iehovah is God’s name… moreover as oft as thou seist LORD in great letters (except there be any error in the printing) is is in Hebrew Iehovah.” (Please note as I told you previously, there was no “J” in English at this time; the J is a product of a stylized I; thus giving us the current Jehovah rather than the Old English Iehovah. The “u” used in the above names is also a reminder that there was no “v” in Old English, as you can read David in the original King James version was written “Dauid”.)
In 1534 Martin Luther published his complete translation of the Bible in German, based on the original languages. While he used the German “Herr” (Lord or Sir) for the Tetragrammaton, in a sermon which he delivered in 1526 on Jeremiah 23:1-8, he said, “The name Jehovah, Lord, belongs exclusively to the true God.”
Subsequently, Jehovah was used not only in the “Authorized” King James version of 1611, but the Spanish VALERA version of 1602, the Portugese ALMEIDA version of 1681, the German ELBERFELDER version of 1871, and the American Standard Version of 1901. It appears that the Jerusalem Bible was the first one to used Yahweh instead of Lord and Jehovah.
ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA
(used without permission)
Yahweh
the God of the Israelites, his name being revealed to Moses as four Hebrew CONSONANTS (YHWH) CALLED THE TETRAGRAMMATON. AFTER THE EXILE (6TH CENTURY BC), and especially from the 3rd century BC on, Jews ceased to use the name Yahweh for two reasons. As Judaism became a universal religion through its proselytizing in the Greco-Roman world, the more common noun elohim, meaning “god,” tended to replace Yahweh to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israel’s God over all others. At the same time, the divine name was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered; it was thus replaced vocally in the synagogue ritual by the Hebrew word Adonai (“My Lord”), which was translated as Kyrios (“Lord”) in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament.
The Masoretes, who from about the 6th to the 10th century worked to reproduce the original text of the Hebrew Bible, replaced the vowels of the name YHWH with the vowel signs of the Hebrew words Adonai (“Lord”, editor) or Elohim (“God”, editor). Thus, the artificial name Jehovah (YeHoWaH)(emphasis ours, ed.) came into being. Although Christian scholars after the Renaissance and Reformation periods used the term Jehovah for YHWH, in the 19th and 20th centuries biblical scholars again began to use the form Yahweh. Early Christian writers, such as Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century, had used a form like Yahweh, and this pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was never really lost. Other Greek transcriptions also indicated that YHWH should be pronounced Yahweh.
This has been an issue for me as well. I have a distant relative who is a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. She & I have had several debates regarding this & many other subjects. Here is the answer that I have for her that I will pass on to you;
Researched (and greatly appreciated) for The Church of Yahweh By Jeroen Ashton
In 1278 a spanish monk, Raymundo Martini, wrote the latin work PUGIO FIDEI (Dagger of faith). In it he used the name of God, spelling it Yohoua. Later printings of this work, dated some centuries later, used the spelling JEHOVA.
Soon after, in 1303, Porchetus de Salvaticis completed a work entitled VICTORIA PORCHETI AVERSUS IMPIOS HEBRAEOS (Porchetus’ Victory Against the Ungodly Hebrews). He spells God’s name IOHOUAH, IOHOUA and IHOUAH.
Then, in 1518, Petrus Galatinus, a Catholic priest born in the late 1400′s, published a work entitled DE ARCANIS CATHOLICAE VERITATIS (Concerning Secrets of the Universal Truth) in which he spelled God’s name IEHOUA.
Now, the direct answer to your question: the name “Jehovah” first appeared in an English BIBLE in 1530, when William Tyndale published a translation of the Chumash (the first five books of the Bible). In this, he included the name of God, usually spelled IEHOUAH, in several verses (Genesis 15:2; Exodus 6:3; 15:3; 17:6; 23:17; 33:19; 34:23; Deuteronomy 3:24. Tyndale also included God’s name in Ezekiel 18:23 and 36:23 in his translations that were added at the end of THE NEW TESTAMENT, Antwerp, 1534), and in a note in this editon he wrote: “Iehovah is God’s name… moreover as oft as thou seist LORD in great letters (except there be any error in the printing) is is in Hebrew Iehovah.” (Please note as I told you previously, there was no “J” in English at this time; the J is a product of a stylized I; thus giving us the current Jehovah rather than the Old English Iehovah. The “u” used in the above names is also a reminder that there was no “v” in Old English, as you can read David in the original King James version was written “Dauid”.)
In 1534 Martin Luther published his complete translation of the Bible in German, based on the original languages. While he used the German “Herr” (Lord or Sir) for the Tetragrammaton, in a sermon which he delivered in 1526 on Jeremiah 23:1-8, he said, “The name Jehovah, Lord, belongs exclusively to the true God.”
Subsequently, Jehovah was used not only in the “Authorized” King James version of 1611, but the Spanish VALERA version of 1602, the Portugese ALMEIDA version of 1681, the German ELBERFELDER version of 1871, and the American Standard Version of 1901. It appears that the Jerusalem Bible was the first one to used Yahweh instead of Lord and Jehovah.
ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA
(used without permission)
Yahweh
the God of the Israelites, his name being revealed to Moses as four Hebrew CONSONANTS (YHWH) CALLED THE TETRAGRAMMATON. AFTER THE EXILE (6TH CENTURY BC), and especially from the 3rd century BC on, Jews ceased to use the name Yahweh for two reasons. As Judaism became a universal religion through its proselytizing in the Greco-Roman world, the more common noun elohim, meaning “god,” tended to replace Yahweh to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israel’s God over all others. At the same time, the divine name was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered; it was thus replaced vocally in the synagogue ritual by the Hebrew word Adonai (“My Lord”), which was translated as Kyrios (“Lord”) in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament.
The Masoretes, who from about the 6th to the 10th century worked to reproduce the original text of the Hebrew Bible, replaced the vowels of the name YHWH with the vowel signs of the Hebrew words Adonai (“Lord”, editor) or Elohim (“God”, editor). Thus, the artificial name Jehovah (YeHoWaH)(emphasis ours, ed.) came into being. Although Christian scholars after the Renaissance and Reformation periods used the term Jehovah for YHWH, in the 19th and 20th centuries biblical scholars again began to use the form Yahweh. Early Christian writers, such as Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century, had used a form like Yahweh, and this pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was never really lost. Other Greek transcriptions also indicated that YHWH should be pronounced Yahweh.
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Louishacker
Guest
The origin of the word Jehovah can be traced to the late Middle Ages (around the year 1500), when Jewish scribes began inserting the vowels from the Hebrew word adonai (“my Lord”) into the name YHWH. The insertion resulted in the hybrid term YaHoWaH. Scribes wanted this new word to remind readers that God’s name was too holy to pronounce, so they should substitute adonai for it when reading biblical passages aloud. Then, when the term YaHoWaH was Latinized, the “Y” and “W” were changed to “J” and “V”–resulting in Jehovah. In other words, Jehovah is a mistransliteration, compounded by the fact that, while “J” has a “Y” sound in Latin, it has a very different sound in English–as in the word jam. Jehovah appears in no literature earlier than about the thirteenth century, and it began to be popularized in the sixteenth century by well-meaning but mistaken Christians." (Richard Abanes, The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code, p. 19, 83)
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LegoGE1947
Guest
There are several modern “worship” choruses that use the word Jehovah. (Very popular with the likes of Kenneth Copeland, etc
)
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Matt_Guitar_Man
Guest
The important thing to remember is that “Jehovah” in no way represents the name of God expressed in the ancient, original tettragrammaton YHWH. It is a made up hybrid word originating in western Europe during the middle ages. And it has never received any kind of approval to be used in any way by the Catholic Church.There are several modern “worship” choruses that use the word Jehovah. (Very popular with the likes of Kenneth Copeland, etc
Its appearance in the unapproved (heretical ) version of the Bible called the King James in 1611, unfortunately has left a legacy that has plagued us all ever since. With some protestant sects such as the Jehovah Wittnesses even insisting that every one should address God by this false, man made, hybrid construct.
One wonders why we should not call God Zues or Oden or for that matter Bruce Almighty, which all have about as much authority and validity as Jehovah.
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LegoGE1947
Guest
How did the KJV get to be called the “Authorized” King James Version? Who "authorized"it?
I was thinking maybe we could just as well call God “Bob”. 
Also why is it that some people spell God as “G–d”?
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Usagi
Guest
King James I, the king of England and head of the Church of England at the time, authorized the translation that bears his name. It’s a beautiful work of English literature, whatever its faults as a translation.How did the KJV get to be called the “Authorized” King James Version? Who "authorized"it?
The spelling “G-d,” as I understand it, is similar to the usage of “Lord” in place of the Divine Name. You see it frequently here in posts by our Jewish members. The idea, I believe, is never to render God’s name (or even the word “God”) completely in a perishable medium like electrons on the Internet. (As I understand it, Jewish tradition prescribes very specific treatment for any medium that bears the name of God.)
Usagi
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patrick457
Guest
Well, for me at least, ‘Yahweh’ is no more correct than ‘Jehovah’ or ‘Iehovah’ or ‘Yehowah’ (whichever you prefer). I don’t really like dissing (excuse the term) ‘Jehovah’ just because the Jehovah’s Witnesses or whatever use it nowadays. I don’t know - I find it to be a bit low an argument.
I don’t really like dissing (excuse the term) ‘Jehovah’ just because the Jehovah’s Witnesses or whatever use it nowadays. I don’t know - I find it to be a bit low an argument.
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LegoGE1947
Guest
I thought the electrons on the internet never go away even when you “delete” something. Technically, only God is not perishable.
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TimothyH
Guest
I agree. All of those names, whether they have a basis in the Old Testament and history or not, are incomplete or shadowy representations. One group uses the word Yaweh, another Elohim, another I AM, and yet another “The God of Abraham.”Well, for me at least, ‘Yahweh’ is no more correct than ‘Jehovah’ or ‘Iehovah’ or ‘Yehowah’ (whichever you prefer).
The fullness of revelation is that God’s name is Jesus. Jesus is God’s name.
That’s about as high as I can take the argument when it comes to non-Trinitarians who want to discuss God’s name.
-Tim-
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WilliamPaul68
Guest
Well said, Tim. “Seek ye first, the kingdom of God.” That is who He is and that is His name.
Paul
Paul
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flower_lady
Guest
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kkollwitz
Guest
catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0804119.htm
“…songs such as “You Are Near,” “I Will Bless Yahweh” and “Rise, O Yahweh” will no longer be part of the Catholic worship experience in the United States.”
“…songs such as “You Are Near,” “I Will Bless Yahweh” and “Rise, O Yahweh” will no longer be part of the Catholic worship experience in the United States.”
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DaveBj
Guest
Well, for me at least, ‘Yahweh’ is no more correct than ‘Jehovah’ or ‘Iehovah’ or ‘Yehowah’ (whichever you prefer).
I cringe whenever I hear someone say “yaaaa-way” – which doesn’t happen all that often any more.
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adf417
Guest
They most probably will have already heard everything you can present them on this front. You will need much more of a defense than what has been said here. They are very persistent. Please be prepared.
Peace!!!
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TimothyH
Guest
Amen to that! Thank you all for your answers, now when Jehovah witnesses come to me and tell me that Jehovah is the true God, I will have some useful information to give them, some history. Before I did not know what to tell them because I didn’t know where the name came from. All that I was almost certain of was that I did not recall ever seeing the name Jehovah in the bible. Brenda (Catholic forever).
And they will respond by bringing in the specialists, former Catholics who are specially trained to engage Catholics, specially trained to get us to doubt our faith. They did this to me, came back a few weeks later with the special-ops.
They are very good. I wouldn’t mess with them unless you are very strong in your faith. I consider myself strong in the faith and they really shook me up. They are trained to know exactly what to say and how to refute every argument.
I would just tell them that you are Catholic and move on. I wouldn’t mess with them.
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And they will respond by bringing in the specialists, former Catholics who are specially trained to engage Catholics, specially trained to get us to doubt our faith. They did this to me, came back a few weeks later with the special-ops.
They are very good. I wouldn’t mess with them unless you are very strong in your faith. I consider myself strong in the faith and they really shook me up. They are trained to know exactly what to say and how to refute every argument.
I would just tell them that you are Catholic and move on. I wouldn’t mess with them.
-Tim-
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flower_lady
Guest
Oh, believe me if it gets that deep, I will tell them to move on and politely shut my door, that is what I usually do anyway. I’m just so tired of them knocking on my door. They are pest. You are correct, they don’t give up easily. They almost rush you. LOL So much for them I’m ready to move on. Next time they come I won’t open my door at all.
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